


How a Winchester Got His Wings

by JinxedAmbitions



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Caretaker Castiel, M/M, Mostly Fluff, Older Dean, Sick Dean Winchester, Temporary Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-06
Updated: 2016-06-06
Packaged: 2018-07-12 16:16:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,320
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7113139
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JinxedAmbitions/pseuds/JinxedAmbitions
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The problem with loving a human was that they grew old and eventually they died.  Castiel had never been so aware of this as when Dean's health began to fail far sooner than it should have.  Castiel spent every spare moment searching for his father, searching for a reprieve from the inevitable, and in the end he found more than he could have ever imagined...but that had always been the case with Dean.</p>
            </blockquote>





	How a Winchester Got His Wings

**Author's Note:**

> This is pretty old, so it doesn't go along with any of the story from season 11. I've just been going through my old fics on tumblr and saw this one and decided to archive it here.
> 
> *Temporary major character death, like blink and you'll miss it.* I promise, it's really not as depressing as the subject matter makes it out to be.

Cas sat across from his father. He could feel the power rolling off his father’s vessel. How he hadn’t realized that Chuck Shurley was his father…Cas would forever berate himself for it. It was unmistakable now. Even with the five o’clock shadow and the stained clothes.

Cas had hunted his father down—successfully this time—not for a grand purpose but for a selfish one. Perhaps that’s why he’d found him this time. His father knew the motives of those who sought him after all.

Dean didn’t know Cas had been searching tirelessly for his father for years now. Every night he watched his lover fall asleep, then he searched through the dark hours.

Dean was getting older. Years of hard living wore him thin long before his time. Even his strong spirit couldn’t fight the weathering of age. Castiel had much power, but not even an Angel of the Lord could grant immortality.  

Cas had told himself for years that even a finite amount of time with Dean would be enough, but it had been a lie. No amount of time would ever be enough. Castiel had pieced Dean’s soul together with his own grace. To lose Dean would be his end.

So, Cas has searched tirelessly with the most selfish purpose. His time was short though. Dean was sick. His memory fading, body withering. It was only a matter of time before Castiel was left alone.

But here he sat across from his father whose vessel had not aged a day since they last crossed paths. Neither had Castiel’s body—save for the wear of several human months—and it brought back memories of a different time. There was so much anger that Cas could hurl at his father for the abandonment he and his siblings had faced, for the apocalypse come and gone, but Castiel could only think of Dean.

“He’s dying, Father,” Castiel said, tracing the grain of the wooden table. “I do not know why I thought time would slow for us. It was foolish, but I was in love. I’m told that makes men foolish. I suppose the same goes for angels.”

Castiel couldn’t look at Chuck. It was so strange to revisit that time. So strange to see a familiar, understanding face when he felt so alone in this.

“This is why angels and humans were not meant to love each other.” Chuck’s voice was even the same. There was nothing almighty about it, but it was still Him.

“You told us to love them.”

“But they were never to know of you—”

“He’s not just one of them, Father. He’s given everything for this world. He’s given everything for _you_ ,” Cas insisted.

Chuck shrugged. 

“What do you want from me, Castiel? If I give in to your wishes, then what of all the others? What about when Gabriel wants to cause mayhem? What about when—”

“I don’t know. All I know is I’ve wasted so many nights looking for you, hoping you could make this better. I’ve lost so many nights at his side.” Castiel looked at his hands. Hands that didn’t originally belong to him but to another. They were the only hands that he’d ever touched Dean with, and he would never take another vessel because of that.

“You should go home to him then, Castiel.” Chuck’s voice made his father’s words less harsh, but the denial was there all the same.

Castiel looked into his father’s eyes for the first time then. Even before he’d left them, Castiel had never been in his father’s presence. He looked at him and through the so called windows to the soul, and he waited. He waited for that profound moment of awe, but it never came. He wondered if it was he that was defective.

“You’re right, I should because he’s the only one that’s never let me down. I should never have gone looking for an answer when it was always right in front of me,” Castiel said, and he was gone.

He stood in the corner of the room he shared with Dean. Dean’s breathing rasped in his chest as he slept. Castiel walked to him and took his hand which rested on the top of the comforter. He used his grace to ease Dean’s pain, but short of witchcraft, there was little more he could do for him now.

Castiel went to prepare Dean’s breakfast as the sun rose. He brought the eggs and bacon to the bed, and Dean was already sitting up.

“I was dreaming of how we met,” Dean said, pausing to cough several times.

“I was already in awe of you then. The Righteous Man,” Castiel told him fondly. It hadn’t been the smoothest start, but it had been memorable. It was something Dean never forgot even as his memory faded more and more.

Dean laughed which became a hacking cough, but he pushed Cas’ hands away when he tried to steady Dean. “I remember your wings.”

“They were only shadows to you.”

“They were still impressive,” Dean told him with a ghost of his old charming smile.

When Dean finished pushing his food around his plate and pretending he had an appetite, he sent Cas back to the kitchen with the tray while he dressed himself.

Castiel was scraping the eggs into the trash when he heard the thud. He flew into the bedroom in a flash to find Dean’s body limp on the bed, Castiel’s father beside him pressing one of Chuck Shurley’s fingers to Dean’s forehead.

Castiel opened his mouth to ask what was going on when he felt it. His father was giving Dean his grace. 

Now, Castiel felt awe as he looked at his father. He felt immense fear and power as he watched his father create a celestial being before his very eyes. His own grace responded, being drawn into the room. There was so much power here that Castiel felt the whole house shake, windows rattling.

Dean’s eyes snapped open, glowing, and they looked at Cas.

His father wasn’t just saving Dean. He wasn’t just creating another angel. Castiel realized that He had created an archangel.

Chuck’s hand fell away as Dean sat up. Castiel could see his wings stretch out beyond his physical body, and Cas had never seen something so beautiful. Dean’s vessel shed the wear of age until the man Castiel had first met sat before him, and it took Cas’ breath away.

“Cas?” Dean asked, gripping the comforter. 

“Yes Dean?”

“They’re so much more beautiful than I’d ever imagined,” Dean told him, clearly looking at Castiel’s own wings.

“Yours are beautiful too,” Cas told him.

Dean turned to look at their father then, studying him carefully. “Why?” he asked, though Cas thought it might be more for his own good than Dean’s.

“You were right Castiel. He’s given so much, and so many of my children have been lost. A new guardian is needed, an archangel with power but who knows the worth of humanity and love,” He said before disappearing in the blink of an eye.

Castiel looked at Dean, stepping into the room. Dean watched him approach.

“This is why you disappeared at night?” Dean asked.

“I wasn’t ready to lose you,” Castiel told him, kneeling on the bed with him.

“I thought you couldn’t stand to see me anymore as I deteriorated.”

“I’ve never been able to take my eyes off you. Never will,” Castiel said, taking Dean’s hand.

“Now, you’ll never have to,” Dean told him, pulling Cas to himself.

“I love you,” Castiel told him. “I’ve loved you from the moment I found you in the pit.”

“I remember it all now. I can feel your grace still a part of me now, and I’ll love you until the end of time,” Dean promised, pulling Castiel in and kissing him.

Castiel felt his faith restored in Dean’s embrace. 


End file.
